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Allied Asphalt: 1923

October 1923. Washington, D.C. "Allied Asphalt Products Co." Behind all that smelly hot tar and paving aggregate, under the compacted gravel -- a hidden world of glamour and intrigue! National Photo Company glass negative. View full size.

My heart goes out to Little Orphan Annie. In providing us with photographic evidence of the fact that the "bad hair day" is not a modern phenomenon she also has to undergo the indignity of people still laughing at it 86 years later.

This photo also proves that there is a direct correlation for women between attractiveness and the proximity to the boss' desk. (And I'd give anything to go back 86 years and chat up the cutie doubling on the switchboard.)

That big ringer was standard issue. They were all that big and metallic and LOUD. I installed one of those in a 1915 house I had (along with the candlestick phone), and it ensured that you never missed a call.

Talking on a candlestick phone sounds like you are in a submarine - the Bell Ph.D. acoustical engineers had yet to be hired.

One of the girls has bobbed her hair - and it being so early in the 1920s has not yet had the opportunity to style it in marcel waves - probably just had it hacked off by a barber. By the end of the 1920s, she'd have the option of a permanent wave.

The other two are wearing their hair in the "earphone" (or "cootie garage") style, which fell out of favor by the mid-1920s as more and more girls took the plunge with the barber (or even the female hairstylist!) Once cloche hats were standard it was harder and harder to have stylish long hair!

Larger Offices Occupied

Asphalt Products Corporation Moves
to 919 New York Avenue.

The Allied Asphalt Products Corporation, of which Thomas J. Brown is president, last week removed their offices from the Southern building to new enlarged quarters, occupying the entire ground floor at 919 New York avenue northwest.

This corporation is regional distributor for the Keystone Manufacturing Company, York, Pa., manufacturers of asphalt shingles, waterproof paper and paint.

As usual the details of an era gone by are what make this photo so special. No cubicles. Everyone sits out in the open. Two have candlestick telephones and inkwells. The others just get typewriters. (What a dreary job to type and type and never even get interrupted by a phone call). [Look a little closer. The girl on the right has not just a telephone, but an entire telephone switchboard, on her desk. - Dave]

There are paste pots by the cabinet in the corner, against the wall. Not sure what they pasted, but they apparently filed it there. Maybe it was customer addresses from invoices or letterheads. Maybe it was photos. On the wall are photos of houses they must have paved with asphalt.

And the graphics of the calendar are indeed very 1920's. And yes, you are right. We now know what Little Orphan Annie did when she grew up. She became a typist!

I've seen that kind of hair in a lot of early 1920s photos. Since I have that kind of hair myself I can see why. Most bobs were done by barbers and when hair of this texure is suddenly released from the weight of length and the constraints of hairpins -- this is the result! It took a while for people to figure out how to handle it when it is short.

The "Company Man" at the middle desk is a study in frustration. Almost everyone else in the office is younger than he is, but he's never gotten a private office of his own. His phone is facing in the wrong direction, and not even the frizzy-haired typist will give him a good time down at Joe's speakeasy.

Meantime, he's the only economist in the whole company who's figured out that the stock market will collapse by 1929. But will the boss in the glass booth listen to a word he says, or look at his charts? No. He takes the train home to his nagging wife, who wants a new Orthophonic Victrola and a 12-cylinder Packard Cabriolet. She gives him a hard time from the minute he walks in the door, so he retreats to his den, with a bottle of bootleg hooch and a few Bix records.

Michael Scott watches over everything from his private office at the back. Sitting in front of him and slightly hung over is Meredith, with Creed telling her a surreal anecdote from his mysterious past. In the middle, Kevin is shuffling papers and trying to look busy. Off to the right, Pam gives the camera a knowing look. And at the left - whoa, waitaminute, how did Little Orphan Annie get a job at Dunder-Mifflin?!

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.